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See - Encyclopedia Titanica (2025) Fermina Oliva y Ocana (ref: #221, last updated: 9th January 2025, accessed 8th May 2025 06:23:32 AM)
URL : https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/fermina-oliv...

Titanic Passenger Summary

Name: Doña Fermina Oliva y Ocana
Titanic Survivor
Born: Friday 11th October 1872 in Uclés, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Age: 39 years 6 months and 4 days (Female)
Nationality: Spanish
Marital Status: Single
Last Residence: in Madrid, Spain
Occupation: Personal Maid to Mrs Maria Josefa Perezde Soto y Vallejo Peñasco y Castellana
1st Class Passengers
Embarked: Cherbourg on Wednesday 10th April 1912
Ticket No. 17758, £108 18s
Cabin No. C109
Rescued (boat 8)
Disembarked Carpathia: New York City on Thursday 18th April 1912
Died: Wednesday 28th May 1969 aged 96 years
Buried: Cementerio de Nuestra Señora de La Almudena, Madrid, Spain

• Profile Photo Source: https://pinarejolamancha.blogspot.com/2012/04/el-hundimiento-del-ti...

Doña Fermina Oliva y Ocana, 39, was born October 12, 1872 in Madrid, Spain. She boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg as maid to Mrs Victor de Satode Peñasco y Castellana. They were rescued in lifeboat 8.

She died May 28, 1969 in Spain. She never married

http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/fermina-oliva...

• Name: Doña Fermina Oliva y Ocaña
• Titanic Survivor
• Born: Saturday 12th October 1872
• Age: 39 years 6 months and 3 days (Female)
• Nationality: Spanish
• Last Residence: Madrid, Spain
• Occupation: Maid to Mrs Maria Josefa Perezde Soto y Vallejo Peñasco y Castellana
• 1st Class Passenger
• First Embarked: Cherbourg on Wednesday 10th April 1912
• Ticket No.: 17758, £108 18s
• Cabin No.: C-105
• Rescued: (Boat 8)
• Disembarked Carpathia: New York City on Thursday 18th April 1912
• Died: on Wednesday 28th May 1969 in Madrid, Spain aged 96 years
• Reference: https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-deckplans/ deck plans of R.M.S. Titanic
• Reference: https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-lifeboat-8/ Life Boat No.

FERMINA OLIVA Y OCAÑA

★ UCLÉS (CUENCA), 12 DE OCTUBRE DE 1872 ✝ MADRID, 28 DE MARZO DE 1969 Fotografía tomada dos días antes de embarcar en el "Titanic" (Photograph made two days after "Titanic")

Fermina llego a Madrid y se puso a trabajar de costurera en un pequeño negocio de confección, es allí, donde contacto con el matrimonio Peñasco, poniéndose al servicio de la esposa Doña María Josefa Pérez de Soto, ✝ Madrid, 3 abril de 1972, Cementerio de San Isidro, acompañándolos durante su luna de miel. En el atardecer del miércoles 10 abril de 1912, en Cherburgo, Fermina Oliva embarcó en el Titanic junto con los Peñasco. La noche del hundimiento, Fermina se encontraba en su camarote cosiendo su corsé y no podía conciliar el sueño.

Poco antes de la medianoche del 15 de abril de 1912, Fermina, que acababa de tenderse sobre su cama, notó como el impacto del trasatlántico contra el iceberg detuvo repentinamente el curso del navío. Los empleados del barco le habían dicho que no había ningún problema, pero el tiempo pasaba y, pasada la medianoche, comenzaron a bajar los primeros botes salvavidas. Fermina sólo se llevó una estampa de San José que tenía encima de su cama, guardándosela bajo el salvavidas y encomendándose a ella. El bote comenzó a bajar, y Fermina, presa del miedo de estar en un buque hundiéndose y rodeada de gente que no hablaba su idioma, empezó a llorar y a gritar, ante lo cual un oficial la "arrojó como un saco de paja" hasta el bote, donde se reunió con María Josefa.

En noviembre de 1959, a sus entonces 87 años y con motivo de lapremiere en España de la película británica sobre el hundimiento del Titanic, La última noche del Titanic, Fermina concedió una breve entrevista para el períodico ABC. (Leer artículo).

Volvió a su vida de costurera, en su casa de la calle Regueros de Madrid, que más tarde convertiría en una pensión. Nunca se caso y no tuvo hijos.

AGRADECIMIENTOS:

Juanma Hc Que nos puso tras la pista de la sepultura de Fermina.

Doña Fermina Oliva y Ocaña, First Class Passenger

Translation provided by Titanic researcher José Martinez.

3rd November, 1959

The Spanish newspaper "ABC" interviewed Doña Fermina Oliva y Ocaña, Mrs Peñasco's maid, on 3rd November of 1959. Then aged 87, she was interviewed for the premiere of the British film "A Night to Remember" in Spain, where it is said she would be in attendance.

Below is reproduced part of the interview of this First Class Spanish Survivor:

'[...] Her memory, of course, is not very good. But when she talks about the "great adventure of her life," her words and gestures rise prodigiously to the scene.

"- I have traveled much, very much ... England, Canada, New York, Paris a thousand times, the whole of Africa ... That year [1912] we were in Paris, I was accompanying a married couple of newlyweds [Mr Victor Peñasco and Mrs Josefa Peñasco] when they decided to take the "Titanic" to New York.

Suddenly, it scared me and I did not want to go. I remember the "Reina Regente", which had sunk in the Strait, and I had a bad feeling ...But they embarked. The "Titanic" was unsinkable, they were told. They had never traveled more luxuriously and safely ... until that night. We'd just gone to bed, [and] we were in First [Class]. I was entertaining myself a little by sewing my corset and as soon as I laid down on the bed, the ship stopped suddenly. What has happened? [I asked] "It's nothing, it's nothing", said the employees. But we got on deck and found out the truth. "Oh my God! Oh my God!". We went down to put on the lifejackets and, then we realized, the boats were already full [?]. There was not [lifeboats] for everyone, as you know.

Q. Did you get seating all three? A. Only the Señora [Mrs Peñasco] who I served. She took leave forever from her husband and entered into one boat [Lifeboat # 8].

Q. And you? A. I was left [on the deck?]. But I started screaming, desperate, and they had no choice but to take me. They threw me like a straw bag for over a metre high [thrown a metre down?], when the boat was already being lowered.

Q. Were men going with you? A. On that boat many were not going. Two threw themselves into the boat from the Second Class Deck and one of them broke his leg.

Q. How was the sea? A. At first, it was quiet. Our boat pulled away from the "Titanic". We were dead cold. I occasionally turned back my head and looked at the tiny windows [portholes] as they were sinking in the sea ... I got sick, but I kept clinging to the "nose" [bow?] of the boat. That was horrible! That was horrible! and soon began the temporal [the final phase of the sinking?].

Q. But you would take good sailors? A. No. The boat was lead by a Countess [Lucy Noël Martha, Countess of Rothes] ... At daybreak, waves buffeted us so much that nobody could keep the boat afloat. We believed we could never reach the "Carpathia", the ship that first came to our aid; [it was] so close we watched it ...

Q. Until they picked you up? [?] A. Yes, everyone [was] half dead. I was very bad [for] many months. Two men died on the "Carpathia", frozen, and were buried at two [... o'clock? during daytime? ].

Q. Did you save some of your luggage? A. Nothing. I only took a stamp [?] of San José [Roman Catholic Saint] I had above my bed. I place it under my lifejacket and I prayed to him. I never regret having choosen that stamp between so many things that I could take.

Q. Worst thing about that night? A. The fear of staying on the ship. It was the most terrifying moment of my life. Every time I remember, I think it just happened and I was just saved miraculously ...

Notes:

1. Spelling and punctuation have been preserved, where possible.

2. The "Reina Regente" was a Spanish ship which disappeared under the waters of the Strait of Gibraltar, in 1893, with its crew of 420 men while sailing from Tangier (Morocco) to Cadiz (Spain).

3. It is hard to believe when they just go on deck, in the first phase of the sinking (23:40-01:00), they already presaged the worst or imagined that the ship was going to sink. Maybe it was the apprehension ?

4. It is hard to believe the cumbersome climb into the lifeboat when she says, "They threw me like a straw bag for over a meter high, when the boat was already being lowered."

5. She said once her boat was in the water or during the lowering "Two [men] threw themselves into the boat from the Second Class Deck and one of them broke his leg". There is no evidence that in Lifeboat # 8 two men got in by such a fashion, either throwing themselves during the lowering or when afloat at sea. Second class men could not jump off from their deck, because this boat pulled away by passing the bow and the said deck was aft.

• Reference: Full text- https://archive.org/details/truthabouttitani00grac/page/n6 "The Truth About the Titanic" by Colonel Archibald Gracie, IV 1913 pp. 141-146

BOAT NO. 8 *

British Report (p. 38) puts this boat second on port side at 1.10. Notwithstanding Seaman Fleet's testimony (Am. Inq., p. 363), I think she must have preceded No. 6.

No male passengers in this boat.

Passengers: Mrs. Bucknell and her maid (Albina Bazzani) ; Miss Cherry, Mrs. Kenyon, Miss Leader, Mrs. Pears, Mrs. Penasco and her maid (Mile. Olivia) ; Countess Rothes and her maid (Miss Maloney) ; Mrs. Swift, Mrs. Taussig, Miss Taussig, Mrs. White and her maid (Amelia Bessetti) ; Mrs. Wick, Miss Wick, Miss Young and Mrs. Straus' maid (Ellen Bird).

Women : 24.

Said good-bye to wives and sank with the ship: Messrs. Kenyon, Pears, Penasco, Taussig and Wick.

Crew: Seaman T. Jones, Stewards Crawford and Hart, and a cook.

Total: 2S.

INCIDENTS

T. Jones, seaman (Am. Inq., p. 570). The captain asked me if the plug was in the boat and I answered, 'Yes, sir. All right," he said, "any more ladles?" He shouted twice again, "Any more ladies?"

I pulled for the light, but I found that I could not get to it; so I stood by for a while. I wanted to return to the ship, but the ladies were frightened. In all, I had thirty-five ladies and three stewards, Crawford, Hart and another. There were no men who offered to get in the boat. I did not see any children, and very few women when we left the ship. There was one old lady there and an old gentleman, her husband. She wanted him to enter the boat with her but he backed away. She never said anything; if she did, we could not hear it, because the steam was blowing so and making such a noise.*

Senator Newlands : Can you give me the names of any passengers on this boat?

Witness : One lady — she had a lot to say and I put her to steering the boat.

Senator Newlands: What was her name?

Witness: Lady Rothes; she was a countess, or something.

A. Crawford, steward (Am. Inq., pp. in, 827, 842).

By the testimony of the witness and Steward Crawford it appears that Mr. and Mrs. Straus approached this boat and their maid got in, but Mr. Straus would not follow his wife and she refused to leave him. After we struck I went out and saw the iceberg, a large black object, much higher than B Deck, passing along the starboard side. We filled No. 8 with women. Captain Smith and a steward lowered the forward falls. Captain Smith told me to get in. He gave orders to row for the light and to land the people there and come back to the ship. The Countess Rothes was at the tiller all night. There were two lights not further than ten miles — stationary masthead lights. Everybody saw them — all the ladies in the boat. They asked if we were drawing nearer to the steamer, but we could not seem to make any headway, and near daybreak we saw another steamer coming up, which proved to be the Carpathia, and then we turned around and came back. We were the furthest boat away. I am sure it was a steamer, because a sailing vessel would not have had two masthead lights.

Mrs. J. Stuart White (Am. Inq., p. 1008). Senator Smith: Did you see anything after the accident bearing on the discipline of the officers or crew, or their conduct which you desire to speak of?

Mrs. White : Before we cut loose from the ship these stewards took out cigarettes and lighted them. On an occasion Hke that! That is one thing I saw. All of these men escaped under the pretence of being oarsmen. The man who rowed near me took his oar and rowed all over the boat in every direction. . I said to him: *'Why don't you put the oar in the oarlock?" He said: "Do you put it in that hole?" I said: "Certainly." He said: "I never had an oar in my hand before." I spoke to the other man and he said: "I have never had an oar in my hand before, but I think I can row." These were the men we were put to sea with, that night — with all those magnificent fellows left on board who would have been such a protection to us — those were the kind of men with whom we were put to sea that night! There were twenty-two women and four men in my boat. None of the men seemed to understand the management of a boat except one who was at the end of our boat and gave the orders. The officer who put us in the boat gave strict orders to make for the light opposite, land passengers and then get back just as soon as possible. That was the light everybody saw in the distance. I saw it distinctly. It was ten miles away, but we rowed, and rowed, and rowed, and then we all decided that it was impossible for us to get to it, and the thing to do was to go back and see what we could do for the others. We had only twenty-two in our boat. We turned and went back and lingered around for a long time. We could not locate the other boats except by hearing them. The only way to look was by my electric light. I had an electric cane with an electric light in it. The lamp in the boat was worth absolutely nothing. There was no excitement whatever on the ship. Nobody seemed frightened. Nobody was panic-stricken. There was a lot of pathos when husbands and wives kissed each other good-bye.

We were the second boat (No. 8) that got away from the ship and we saw nothing that happened after that. We were not near enough. We heard the yells of the passengers as they went down, but we saw none of the harrowing part of it. The women in our boat all rowed — every one of them. Miss Young rowed every minute. The men (the stewards) did not know the first thing about it and could not row. Mrs. Swift rowed all the way to the Carpathia. Countess Rothes stood at the tiller. Where would we have been if it had not been for the women, with such men as were put in charge of the boat? Our head seaman was giving orders and these men knew noth- ing about a boat. They would say: "If you don't stop talking through that hole in your face there will be one less in the boat.'* We were in the hands of men of that kind. I settled two or three fights between them and quieted them down. Imagine getting right out there and taking out a pipe and smoking it, which was most dangerous. We had woollen rugs all around us. There was another thing which I thought a disgraceful point. The men were asked when they got in if they could row. Imagine asking men who are sup- posed to be at the head of lifeboats if they can row!

Senator Smith : There were no male passengers in your boat?

Mrs. White: Not one. I never saw a finer body of men in my life than the men passengers on this ship — athletes and men of sense — and if they had been permitted to enter these lifeboats with their families, the boats would have been properly manned and many more lives saved, instead of allowing stewards to get in the boats and save their lives under the pretence that they could row when they knew nothing about it.